[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 157 (Wednesday, September 27, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4695-S4699]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SECURING GROWTH AND ROBUST LEADERSHIP IN AMERICAN AVIATION ACT--MOTION
TO PROCEED--Continued
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.
Continuing Resolution
Mr. REED. Madam President, many of us in this Chamber, on both sides
of the aisle, work hard to govern responsibly, and we are deeply
frustrated by those who are deliberately attempting to shut down the
Federal Government.
A fringe element of extremist House Republicans has pushed Congress
to the brink of another costly, wasteful shutdown. A government
shutdown of any duration would harm hard-working Americans and our
economy. Shutdowns cost taxpayers billions of dollars per week. They
cost businesses money. They could even cause a downgrade to the
Nation's credit rating, and they force an unnecessary disruption of
many vital services.
Federal workers in all 50 States who perform essential work, like
food inspectors, TSA agents, or park rangers, would stop getting
paychecks. A Federal shutdown can halt projects and cause Federal
lending to cease. Clinical trials and research at the NIH could be
forced to stop. Effective programs like the Women, Infants, and
Children Nutrition Program would be left in a vulnerable state.
As for national defense, a government shutdown would be extremely
damaging; and in the midst of the blockade of key military promotions,
it would be another Republican-inflicted wound.
A shutdown could halt our munitions production lines as it did in the
2013 shutdown. This would be very shortsighted--very shortsighted--at a
time when we are focused on ramping up munitions production for Ukraine
and with an eye on future needs in the Indo-Pacific.
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There are several other areas where a shutdown would be harmful.
I urge my colleagues to consider the impacts of a shutdown on our
military men and women, their families, and our defense civilians.
Hundreds of thousands of troops could see delays in their paychecks,
and many civilians could lose their contracts. If the shutdown extends,
the Defense Department will have to reduce its recruiting, training,
and family movement activities.
A shutdown would also include delaying needed investments in military
infrastructure, including barracks and childcare centers. Dozens of new
projects would not go forward.
This would prevent the Defense Department from effectively
modernizing and investing in new programs. There could be no new starts
in acquisition programs or military construction projects. Hundreds of
new start efforts in procurement and R&D would be prohibited during a
government shutdown. As such, the Department could be forced into
funding legacy systems that are outdated and inefficient. That is
simply congressionally mandated waste.
As Gen. C.Q. Brown, the incoming Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, has said about a shutdown, ``All the money in the world cannot
buy more time; time is irrecoverable, and when you are working to keep
pace against well-resourced and focused competitors, time matters.'' We
could easily avoid this outcome by passing a short-term patch while we
continue working toward a broader funding agreement.
I commend the leaders of the Senate Appropriations Committee--Senator
Murray and Senator Collins--who hammered out the bipartisan continuing
resolution before us, and also the leadership on both sides of the
aisle. They have successfully reported out all 12 funding bills--
Senator Collins and Senator Murray--by wide bipartisan votes so that
our appropriations process is working on a bipartisan basis and working
on a reasonable and responsible basis. In fact, seven of these
appropriations bills were voted out unanimously. They are well-crafted
and free from policy poison pills.
They fit within the bipartisan agreement among the chair, the vice
chair, and the leaders on overall funding levels. More importantly,
those bills meet the funding level that Speaker McCarthy demanded as
the price of preventing the default of the U.S. Government just this
summer.
We should pass these bills, and we could pass them but for the
objections of some Republican Senators who are working in concert with
the House to obstruct the appropriations process from moving forward on
a bipartisan basis. Their wanton nihilism is damaging our country.
But we have before us a continuing resolution, or a CR, which,
barring any dilatory tactics, should clear the Senate by a wide margin.
I want to emphasize that this CR is nothing more than a patch. For a
few more weeks, it keeps the government open; it keeps the aviation
system operational and funded; it keeps the Flood Insurance Program
authorized; it ensures that we will continue to take care of disaster
victims throughout the country; and it will ensure that the Ukrainian
people have the resources they need to win their fight for freedom.
This is not extravagance; it is the bare minimum. The question is,
What will House Republicans do?
After creating a default crisis that brought the entire economy to
the brink of disaster in June, they have accomplished virtually
nothing. For months, House Republicans have only been able to pass a
single funding bill. The rest of their highly partisan bills have been
bottled up in committee or blocked from passing on the floor by
Republicans themselves.
In the midst of their palace intrigue, House conservatives seem to be
trying to one-up each other with one drastic, unpopular, and
irresponsible cut after the other. It seems to be a competition over
whose unworkable proposal can inflict more pain. Perhaps they
mistakenly believe that their extreme ideas are popular or that they
will somehow hurt the President.
But who suffers if title I education funding for low-income schools
is cut by 80 percent? Who is harmed when 1.3 million low-income
individuals are kicked out of the SNAP program and when food assistance
for seniors and kids is cut by 14 percent? How do we address the lack
of affordable housing when the HOME Investment Partnership is slashed
by $1 billion? How does Ukraine win when Congress withholds critical
funding?
And let me pause here to underscore the significance of funding for
Ukraine.
The assistance package the President is seeking for Ukraine will
provide much needed military assistance as well as aid to displaced
Ukrainians whose cities and towns continue to face indiscriminate
bombardment by Putin's forces.
We know, if Putin is successful in seizing Ukraine, he will not stop
there. Unless the United States and the international community
continue to stand with Ukraine, Putin will continue to look for
opportunities to inflict violence and violate the sovereignty and
security of our allies and partners around the world. And if Putin
succeeds because we have failed to help, our other adversaries and
competitors will be emboldened too. Indeed, if Putin succeeds, he will
not stop with Ukraine. He will threaten NATO countries.
The bottom line, frankly, is the probability that American military
personnel will be engaged in combat goes up. Frankly, one of our major
missions should be to ensure, through our efforts, that that
probability constantly goes down. We do not want to sacrifice American
military personnel needlessly. Congress should send a strong message to
Putin that we stand with the Ukrainians as they bravely fight for their
homeland.
This is the second manufactured crisis that House Republicans have
created this year. First, they threatened to default on our Nation's
debt. So President Biden sat down with the Speaker and negotiated an
agreement that set spending levels for this year. Now House Republicans
are walking away from that agreement and threatening to shut down the
government. It won't work. The American people can see this charade,
and if there is a shutdown, they will know who is responsible.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. LANKFORD. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Prevent Government Shutdowns Act of 2023
Mr. LANKFORD. Madam President, I have come to this floor several
times over the past many years and several times even recently to talk
about a bill that Senator Hassan and I have together that we have
worked on very hard to end government shutdown threats forever.
This whole conversation that is happening right now in Washington,
DC, about a government shutdown is not something that has always
happened in our Republic. This conversation of a government shutdown
has only really been since the mid-1980s to the present. Before that,
there were no government shutdowns. Even when appropriations lapsed--
and we had multiple times when appropriations lapsed in the past--we
didn't have government shutdowns at that time. It wasn't until there
was actually an executive opinion back in the seventies that there was
created this moment to say, no, we are going to end up having a
government shutdown if appropriations lapse.
We are in this moment again. This is a distinctly modern issue in
American history that we need to bring to a close, this chapter. There
is a way to do it.
In conversations that we have had for years of how do we actually
stop government shutdowns, there have been very partisan bills on both
sides, and Senator Hassan and I sat down 5 years ago and said: Let's
just have a dialogue. How can we stop government shutdowns without
having a partisan bill at the end of it? It would be a way to be able
to fix this that both sides of the aisle can say: That is a good way to
be able to end it.
We have a very simple goal: End government shutdowns. Do
appropriations bills.
That shouldn't be a radical concept. That should be a head nod from
everybody, quite frankly, in this room to
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say: Sure, we can agree to end government shutdowns and to do
appropriations bills on time.
Our simple idea was this: If you don't finish your work during class,
you have to stay after class to finish your work. It is just not that
hard. It is something all of us experienced growing up in school.
If I can make it even simpler, when my older brother and I would get
into an argument, my mom would put the two of us in a room and would
say: You two guys have got to go in this room. Once you solve
everything, then you can come out.
That is the genesis of this simple bill. It says: If we don't have
our appropriations work done and we are still arguing about
appropriations, the government continues to function as it has in the
past year--exact same budget line. Everything continues as normal. The
American people are held harmless. Federal workers, Federal
contractors--all of them--still continue as they have.
But we experience the shutdown here in Washington, DC, not the rest
of the country. We would be in session 7 days a week. We could not move
the bills other than the appropriations bills. So we are locked in a
box to say: If you haven't finished your appropriations bills, you have
to stay overtime to finish those appropriations bills, and you can't
move to something different than appropriations bills. You have got to
be able to do those.
But, again, the American people wouldn't feel it. The Federal workers
wouldn't feel it. The Federal contractors wouldn't feel it. We would.
If we didn't get our work done, why are the Border Patrol agents
along the border--why are they being punished for us not getting our
work done, because the Border Patrol agents, if we don't get this done,
next week, they don't get a paycheck, when they have been working
overtime hours managing 11,000 people a day coming across the border in
chaos that is currently on our border. Those folks have been working as
hard as they can, but because we haven't gotten our work done on the
budgeting, now they don't get paid. Oh, but we are still asking them to
go on the line and to risk their life for their country anyway. That
doesn't make sense to me.
So our simple bill is: If the problem is up here, then the problem
should remain up here, and we should get this resolved but not actually
put the consequences on those folks who are serving us all around the
Nation.
As I came through TSA, flying back to DC, as probably most of my
colleagues did coming back this week, TSA agents whom I pass by every
week--and we have great conversation as I pass by them in the airport
every week. As my bag is being checked and as I am going through the
scanner, like everyone else, the TSA agents were smiling at me saying:
Am I going to get a paycheck next week?
It is not an unreasonable question from them. All they want to know
is: I am here defending the Nation. Am I still going to get paid?
Listen, right now on the border--right now--they are being absolutely
overrun with people coming across the border in big numbers--huge,
overwhelming numbers. It used to be a thousand people a day. That was
an overwhelming number. Yesterday, there were 11,000 people who crossed
our southern border. They were literally just checked in, as much as
could be done to be able to manage them and to be able to put them
through.
If we have a shutdown, they are going to lose some of their support
help, and we are going to have even more people come just across the
border.
Here is what is happening. Anytime that the Border Patrol actually
comes in and checks in, they are trying to manage the number of people
coming between the borders. With the numbers that are coming across
right now, those Border Patrol agents who should be in the field--who
should actually be monitoring what is happening with the movement of
illegal drugs across our border, illegal weapons across our border, and
all the dynamics that are there from criminal elements moving across
our border between ports of entry--they are not getting the opportunity
to be able to chase those down because they are processing individuals.
The vast majority of our Border Patrol agents, by the end of their
time each day, are in the station, not on the line. That only gets
worse when we have a shutdown, and they lose part of their help.
By the way, during a shutdown, ``nonessential'' is also declared for
the recruiting folks, which means we are not out there actually
recruiting more agents to be able to join them to be able to get more
help. There are more and more administrative duties being done by
Border Patrol that we desperately need on the line. And we are grateful
for them on the line.
Last week, I got a notification that rail traffic had stopped in
Eagle Pass, TX. Most folks don't even know about the truck and train
traffic that happens around the country. They just know they go to the
grocery store, and they buy groceries. They go to the store and buy
clothes and furniture. They just know it is there. But that is being
moved by a truckdriver. That is being moved by rail very often.
Last week, in Eagle Pass, TX, DHS shut down all rail traffic there
because a thousand migrants were riding the Mexican rail coming up
through Mexico. They had climbed on the freight trains, and they were
riding it all the way to the north--a thousand. But the response from
DHS was just to shut the station down entirely. Then they took the CBP
folks who are at that station and normally handle legal traffic coming
north and south in and out of Mexico into the United States and out of
the United States to Mexico. They took those CBP agents, and they moved
them over to driving migrants to different stations for their
processing.
So it started out that there were a lot of folks riding the rails to
be able to come to the United States, and it ended up being that we
have so many people here that they literally shut it down.
What was the effect of that? We had American train traffic going
south into Mexico that was backed up from Eagle Pass all the way to
Nebraska, before it was said and done.
I was on the phone with Secretary Mayorkas saying: We have to get
that station back open again. Do we have people illegally crossing the
border riding the rails?
And his answer was: No. But those agents were needed to be able to
move migrants who were illegally crossing in other areas.
The migration that is happening right now is not only affecting our
national security because of the 11,000 people a day who are crossing
our border. Those individuals, by and large, are not being checked.
They are not being vetted. We are checking to see if they are on the
terror watch list. For many of them, we don't have a name or an ID or a
reliable country of origin other than the one they just tell us is
their name or tell us is their country of origin. We have no idea.
They are being quickly paroled into the country, awaiting a hearing
that is often 8 to 10 years in the future--8 to 10 years before they
even get the hearing to determine if they are even eligible to be able
to ask for asylum. This is insanity.
But it doesn't get better if Border Patrol loses all of its help
during the government shutdown. It gets worse.
So we have got to be able to do a couple of things at once. We have
to deal with the real fiscal problems that we have. We have over $2
trillion in overspending this year. That is a real issue we should have
grownup conversations about on this floor.
We have to deal with the immigration crisis and call it what it is.
When 11,000 people a day illegally enter your country and Members of
this body just look the other way, that is a problem. And when there is
a national security crisis based on it, and we have Governors and
mayors across the Nation crying out to this body and saying, ``Make it
stop''--they are not Republican and Democrat Governors and mayors; they
are just Governors and mayors who are trying to manage their towns and
their States. They are saying: Why isn't the Federal Government doing
its job? The Federal Government has a responsibility for managing the
border. Do it.
We have got to deal with the issue of government shutdowns. They hurt
us more than help us. It spends more money than it saves, and it
dramatically affects a lot of Federal workers
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around the country who just want to be able to serve their neighbors or
to be able to do law enforcement and actually get paid for it.
And I hear some of my colleagues and others say: They will eventually
get paid.
Do you know what? That might be simple for some Members in this body,
that they are not worried about living paycheck to paycheck. But there
are an awful lot of folks who live paycheck to paycheck, that just
missing a couple of paychecks is a really big deal. And all of those
Federal contractors, they don't get backpay. They just don't get paid
at all.
So we can't just say: They will all get paid later. They won't.
Federal workers will eventually get backpay, but Federal contractors
never do, and it really hurts for them. This shutdown is not their
fault; it is ours.
So Maggie Hassan and I just have a simple idea: Let's keep working on
the problems, but let's not have a shutdown at the same time. Let's
actually work out our problems in here and not hurt people all over the
country who have no way of affecting what our debate is here. They are
just trying to serve their neighbors. That is what I am looking for.
With that, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Baldwin). The junior Senator from Nevada.
Anniversary of Route 91 Harvest Festival Shooting
Ms. ROSEN. Madam President, it has been nearly 6 years since my
hometown of Las Vegas experienced an unimaginable tragedy--an attack
that ripped families apart, destroyed lives, and left its mark on our
State forever.
During any given weekend, our city is just buzzing with tourists and
visitors from all across the country and all around the world.
And on the night of October 1, 2017, tens of thousands of people came
to attend a music festival. But that night--that night--would be
different--a night that would forever change our city, because that
night a gunman opened fire on a crowd of concertgoers. In just 10
minutes--10 minutes--58 innocent people were struck down, hundreds of
others were injured by gunfire, and hundreds more were hurt in the
chaos that followed.
In the years since, we lost more individuals as a result of this
tragedy, the deadliest mass shooting in American history.
Just think about what that means. It means families will forever have
an empty chair at their kitchen table--families who will relive this
horrific night each and every year, families who didn't get to
celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, and families who never
got to say good-bye to their loved ones.
That night also changed the lives of everyone here. People who were
attending or working at the festival and first responders--well, they
ran towards the danger. The full extent of the damage caused by this
brutal attack can never truly be measured.
But in this dark moment, we saw our community go above and beyond to
help others. Las Vegas--actually our entire State--we rallied together
not just in the immediate aftermath but in the days, weeks, months, and
even years after.
In the chaos and confusion of that night, our heroic first
responders--police officers, firefighters, paramedics--ran into the
scene to help. And their efforts that night saved lives.
And on the following day, we saw lines of people--lines of people--
around entire blocks willing to donate blood.
And one story really sticks out to me. I remember speaking to a woman
waiting to give blood in line. And when I went up to talk to her, she
lifted up her arms like this to me, and she had tears in her eyes, and
she said: I don't have much, but I have my blood to give. This is what
I can give.
I remember her face to this day. It stays with me. And this kind of
selflessness, this really embodies the incredible spirit of our
community. And that woman's donation and the stories that she will tell
and me meeting her has left an indelible imprint on me.
We come together to mourn those we lost and to support those who
survived. This horrible moment showed the country why we are Vegas
Strong. And I am here today to honor the memories of those who were
impacted by that terrible night.
So as we remember and reflect on this event, we must also commit
ourselves to action. And in the years since, we have made some
progress. After decades of inaction, Democrats and Republicans in
Congress came together to pass the most significant gun safety
legislation in almost 30 years.
This bipartisan law is making a difference, but we can--and we must--
do more to stop mass shootings. No community--no community--should ever
have to experience the same pain and suffering that we went through in
Las Vegas. So we can take commonsense bipartisan steps like permanently
banning bump stocks and high-capacity magazines. These things allowed
the shooter to fire so many rounds and cause so much carnage. And doing
nothing is not an option.
We owe it to those who have experienced the pain of gun violence to
do more. And we owe it to future generations to do more.
And at the end of the day, what this really is about is about keeping
people and communities safe. It is about people and communities--
keeping them safe and keeping us safe. And we must keep working to
prevent these tragedies.
And as we approach the 6-year mark since this horrific shooting, I
ask all of my colleagues in this Chamber to remember and honor the
victims of October 1, their lives, their legacy, and their families.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The junior Senator from California.
El Monte Thai Garment Workers
Mr. PADILLA. Madam President, there are moments in history that shock
our national conscience, news so heartbreaking that we will always
remember exactly where we were when we heard the news. One of those
moments is the day the El Monte Thai garment workers were found
enslaved in California.
As recently as August 2, 1995, there was 72 Thai women and men who
were discovered held against their will in the city of El Monte, CA,
just outside the city of Los Angeles. There, in a series of apartments-
turned-sweatshops, packed in between sewing machines, forced to work 16
hours a day, 7 days a week, and hidden behind barbed wire fences and
armed guards, some of them believed help would never come.
They were lured by recruiters with the promise of their own American
dream. Seventy-two Thai women and men arrived into the United States
only to find a nightmare.
When they were liberated by Federal agents on that day, that
nightmare wasn't over. Instead, they were placed into holding cells,
where they feared they would actually be deported after the horrific
experience. It wasn't until a 26-year-old staff attorney for the Asian
Pacific American Legal Center by the name of Julie Su, among others,
took on their case for backpay and for dignity in this country that
they had once only dreamt about.
When the 72 Thai nationals were finally, truly freed, they actually
owed nothing to this country. Yet they stood up and they fought to
protect others from going through the hell they had endured. Their
advocacy led to meaningful protections in America, including the
landmark Federal Victims of Trafficking and Violence Prevention Act,
which created a new class of visas for victims of crimes like forced
labor and trafficking and strengthened the penalties for trafficking
crimes.
Just last week, now-Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su--yes, the same
Julie Su--had the opportunity to induct the El Monte Thai garment
workers into the Department of Labor's Hall of Honor, honoring the
courage they have shown and the progress they have made to protect
other workers.
I also had the privilege of getting to meet them in Washington last
week, and I was proud to join Senators Duckworth and Feinstein in
introducing a resolution to honor them by the U.S. Senate.
But, as each and every one of them has shown us, the best way to
respond to the atrocities they went through, the best way to honor them
is through our action--by keeping up the fight to end human
trafficking, by working to end wage theft that exploits far too many
workers in the garment industry and passing the FABRIC Act, and by, in
my opinion, finally confirming a champion for workers and worker
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rights like Julie Su to be Secretary of Labor.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
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